Wringer

[irowiki]

Don't know what kind of old fashioned rice cookers they sell over in Canada but here they turn off after they're done cooking!

[Petros]

we have had several, and after they cook the rice they go into a "keep warm" mode as long as it is plugged in. I guess people forget them and there is a concern that there is a fire risk, OTHO, if the rice cools off and is left for too long it could cause food poisoning. You exchange one hazard for another.

[dlb]

i think you missed something there, paul. i said that it's easy enough to turn a stove element off after rice is done cooking so who needs a dedicated appliance to do that for them?

a 'keep warm' mode is also a piece of crap. you could just leave the pot on the stove on minimum. or just make the right amount of rice in the first place.

destroy all rice cookers

[irowiki]

Oh, a rice cooker is nice though for say, I put it in the pot for a delay timer, and come home to fresh rice!

[dlb]

you'll never sell me on it. i don't want convenience, i want less stuff cluttering up my life.

[Petros]

I thought the idea was kooky too (who needs another appliance to take up space in the kitchen? Just for rice?), but we got one at a garage sale cheap. My wife thought it was a good idea, some of her friends had them and loved them. When we have a big gathering and the stove is occupied, you dump in the rice (I like to add spices, lentils and other flavoring too), turn it on and forget about it. Typically with big gatherings, people arriving and many dishes being prepared it is very easy to over cook something, or cause a mess when it over boils or burns to the bottom. the rice cooker is perfect for that, cooks it to perfection, not over done or underdone, and keep it warm until you are ready to sever it. Remarkably handy when you have a lot of other things on your mind, it saves time and has the food ready without any effort after you turn it on. It can also cook a lot of similar things, like reconstitute dried chick peas to make freash hummus, that we enjoy. costs pennies to make, but very costly to buy prepared.

If you live alone and never prepare food for a group, no point in this and a lot of other appliances (and I would also say you have a rather boring existence). When you have a family and/or have regular gatherings of groups or relatives, these kind of things make life a lot easier.

My wife helps runs a youth group and is planning on having 12 or 15 teenagers stay over our house in the next few weeks for a weekend, I am sure it will be handy (and a lot of other appliances we have) that weekend.

[lannvouivre]

Petros, that's why you have to be really picky! It all depends on the quality and it's nice to have more efficient appliances. I personally prefer manual knobs, but you have to go pretty far back to get something that your mom can't eventually snap a knob off of.

My parents always get Kenmore brand, and from what I can tell, Kenmore is trash.

[Petros]

the old kenmore (sears house brand) used to be pretty good, you can often find them in used appliance stores. we bought new a kenmore washer and dryer when we first got married in 1983, we just had to replace them last year (over 30 years of trouble free service, through diapers and everything), and have gone through 2 washers since (modern high tech crap with flashing blue lights and beeps and buzzes all night!). The new ones are the same as all the others, they used the same ciruit boards and controls, only the housing is different. discovered this repairing a new POS wall oven, controller failed. the same one is used on all of the applicances. I hate them all, willing to hunt down good old ones.

[rer233]

Hope I'm not jinxing myself but I'm still using the 12.4 cubic foot Kenmore fridge that came with my house. I bought the house in 1977. In all fairness 'tho, it's manual defrost which eliminates a bunch of timers, heaters, etc. I too have heard the new Kenmore stuff is junk and Sears won't do squat as far as backing them up.

[jimcrazy]

got agree on the Kenmore trash, got a new fridge from sears when it was 5 years old rust started coming through the paint, 5 years latter the whole is brown with rust, looks like bottle of coke was sprayed on it. now the compressor is hammering in it. they said never had a problem with rust

[Petros]

an appliance repair man, who came to repair "new" dishwasher for the third time under warranty, when I asked why is everythign new such crap. he said the federal government has mandated energy savings on all household applicances, so they use sensative electronic controls, and much smaller motors and heating elements, that use less power to do the same job. However, smaller motors pumping the same amount of water, and smaller heaters making the water just as hot, will burn out faster. It seems to me that throwing away a "new" applicance after 5 years, and it needing many repairs during that time, will not save energy or resourses.

we can thank again our illustrious government looking out for our interests. We are forced to buy unreliable crap. this is why the costly, heavy duty "commercial kitchen" type of appliances are so popular with the affluent. they hold up better and you do not need to replace them as often. But they are costly, and my wife can not stand the look of them. I kind of like them, they look like serious power tools for the kitchen. I guess to masculine for my wife to allow in "her" kitchen.

[lannvouivre]

I think it's weird that more modern computer parts that are built to be efficient tend to actually be better than older stuff in terms of power consumption and performance, yet a lot of appliances somehow manage to slap in crappy parts. For example, the carputer/interfaces on modern cars manage to be really terrible, but then we can have things like tablets just run circles around them. The tablet I have on my desk is actually going to go into my personal car as a computer/media center. The $80 Garmin GPS unit (free updates) I use runs circles around my dad's $2500 navigation option ($250 for updates).

We have electronics in modern Toyotas that are really good and reliable, then you have BMW electronics that are horrendously prone to failing. Or Land Rovers.

I think it may come down to the approach manufacturers take to electronic components.

Paul, I'm sorry for derailing your thread!